Organic Gardening Magazine, Universal Principles, & Helping Yourself

I’ve been reading Organic Gardening magazine for 32 years. J.I. Rodale started that magazine in 1942. It was known then as Organic Farming and Gardening magazine.

It’s not the same today by any means, but it is still considered a trusted source of information for those of us who want to educate ourselves and improve our lives and possibly the world around us.

Education is part of the key, which is why I have always found it necessary to read Organic Gardening magazine. Unlike years ago, I find things in it from time to time that I feel are not correct, but to my knowledge there is no other source where one can obtain the information that they offer all in one place.

(Update 2013 – After all these years I cancelled my subscription to Organic Gardening Magazine. Nothing last forever — and the Organic Gardening Magazine that I knew, loved and depended on is no longer.)

Mission to Inspire and Instill a “Can Do” Attitude

My mission in creating this website is similar to Rodale, Inc.’s mission. I too strive to inspire and instill a “can do” attitude so that readers can take a more active role in maintaining good health and a good life for themselves and their families.

It is amazing how little the vast majority of people seem to understand when it comes to eating healthfully and growing food in a healthful manner. And it matters not whether they are educated or not. One can be very educated in many things and know nothing about eating healthfully.

I think you have to have purposefully looked for correct information on healthful eating. To be informed, one can certainly not depend on mainstream media. Most information you find there is almost always incorrect or incomplete.

I’ve been in homes of those who claim they eat a healthy diet and yet had refrigerators filled with processed foods. Their pantries had boxes and bags filled with processed foods that are said by the manufacturer to be healthy.

How Do You Determine Truth?

There is so much information out there, it is sometimes difficult to discern what is correct and what is not. How do you tell what’s right? Well, if you can find the universal principle involved it will help you make a determination in most circumstances.

An Example

An easy example would be most conventionally raised meat. If you research the details you’ll find that most conventional meat producing practices go against all universal principles of good animal husbandry. For instance, the feeding of animal parts to animals that eat grass and/or grain. Keeping cows in feed lots too small for the number of cows. Keeping cows from pasture. And on it goes.

If you don’t see anything wrong with these practices then you are out of touch with the principles that create good health in the animals (and people for that matter).

From Conventional Farmer and Meat Producer to Organic

Many organic farmers and meat producers once farmed or produced meat in the conventional way. Through various experiences they came to realize that when their animals were allowed to do what they were meant to do and fed what they were meant to eat (rather than parts of other cattle) — they no longer became sick and no longer needed all the antibiotics and other chemicals that they previously received.

The Majority Has Loss Track of Universal Principles

It’s sad that the vast majority has lost track of the universal principles of health like fresh air, sunshine, exercise, moderation in all things, and dwelling on good things to name just a few of the many. These principles are so simple.

But society as a whole has been brain washed into thinking that for the most part health is beyond our control. (I realize sometimes it is.) But if you listen to your body and apply the principles of health — 99% of the time — you’ll probably make it just fine.

Part of the Medical Profession’s Outlook – My experience.

I’ll give you another example of how much of the medical profession would replace simple effective procedures with less effective complicated procedures. I experienced this first hand and can tell you that this account is 100% accurate and exactly as it happened.

I was able to get my Mother into a care facility close to me after my Father died in 2000 so I could oversee her care — at least to the best of my ability. Mother’s mind was not what it should have been because of the medications she had taken over the years. Thus, she was not always aware of what she was doing.

If her eye itched she would rub it. She would continue to rub it. The more she rubbed the worse it got. Within two days she literally looked like she had a blood red mask on —- similar to a raccoon’s masked face. It was awful.

Bill and I were getting ready to go out of town on business and I visited Mother for a last minute check. (I had just been there a few days before.) I was horrified to see her in the condition described above — although I had seen it many times in the past and knew exactly what to do. Only thing was — I couldn’t do it myself because we had to go out of town.

I asked the nurse (a poor excuse for a nurse) at the facility to make sure that Mother’s face was bathed in a salt solution 3 times a day until the red disappeared. I assured her that I had been through this many times before and it would clear up the redness almost like magic. (I even kept two large boxes of salt on hand in her room.)

The nurse was outraged and informed me that she felt it was hazardous to put salt in someone’s eyes. I explained again this was not putting salt in the eye. This was a simple salt solution probably used for hundreds of years, if not longer, and by me personally for at least a decade or more. Again I explained how she should bathe Mother’s face and eyes to stop the itching and clear the redness.

I returned 4 days later and nothing had been done. They were talking about sending Mother to the hospital. I immediately started the saline solution face-baths and within 2 days most of the redness was gone. Within 4 days you couldn’t tell anything had been wrong.

The Bottom Line

With many things, the society we live in ties our hands. But there is still hope and much we can do for ourselves.

There are so many other stories like the one I told about. It is amazing to me that
I was able to do as much as I did for Mother. In spite of the fact that it was a constant
confrontation with doctors and nurses, Mother never got sick and was not on any medication!
Her last years were some of her best.

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Thank You for Visiting!

My name is Theresa and I've been organic gardening in Virginia for 40 years.

Tending My Garden is an in depth, informative site on organic gardening that helps get you past the hype and overwhelm of most of the “how-to” books and sites. It teaches you the simple things that you really need to be successful.

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‘Those that have found you are very fortunate to discover how to garden in a healthful, less costly, natural way for us and planet earth.”